Love and Sorrow (Small Town Secrets Book 5), стр. 48
“I’d like to know how close.”
“That’s none of your business. If Justin wants to talk to you about it, that’s fine.”
“Whatever. I’m just calling to put you on notice, bitch.”
“Notice? For what?”
“From here on out, you will leave Justin alone. No calling him, no spending time together, nothing. It’s unhealthy for a guy to have friends who are women when he has a girlfriend. It’s potentially damaging.”
“What? Are you out of your mind?” Once more, restrained, I kept myself from calling her a bitch. But the word was rolling around in my brain.
“Are you out of yours? You are not as important to Justin as you might think.”
“You don’t have any idea what I think. You don’t even know me—and you have no right to talk to me like that.” Standing up, I grabbed my cigarettes and walked toward the back of the house. Before she could start talking again, I said, “In fact, don’t ever call me again.”
Chelsea continued spouting until I hung up on her. She called right back, as if we’d been disconnected accidentally, and I let it go straight to voicemail. I couldn’t remember how to block numbers on my cell, but she suddenly quit calling. No voicemails, no texts. Maybe she got a clue. I saved her to my contacts so I’d know who it was the next time she called and, if she did, I’d figure out how to block her.
But that stupid girl would find out soon enough that Justin didn’t keep women around for long.
Unless their relationship was getting serious. Considering Chelsea had gotten my number, probably without Justin’s knowledge, I realized maybe they were closer than I’d allowed myself to believe. It would certainly explain why Justin had been more distant lately.
All the more reason to be glad Kevin and I had a second date coming up.
Chapter Seventeen
At Sarah’s next appointment, when Rebecca wanted to have a one-on-one chat with me, I thought at first maybe she’d figured out the source of Sarah’s problems. But it wasn’t that simple. “Sarah loves you, Randi.” I hadn’t thought hearing something like that would be comforting—but it was, and my eyes actually teared up. Before I could find any words to say, she continued. “Justin.” My ears perked up and my muscles stiffened as I prepared for the worst. “He’s your, uh…boyfriend?”
“No.”
Blinking slowly and taking in a soft breath, she said, “But…the two of you are in a relationship?”
I wanted to say Not anymore or various other noncommittal responses. Instead, I simply replied, “Yes.”
“I wanted you to know Sarah mentioned him and said she misses him.”
Holy shit. Sarah actually noticed that Justin hadn’t been coming by? I just nodded, because what could I say? Besides the fact that Justin had been away intentionally for Sarah’s sake at first, he was now away for mine as well. “Sarah’s a great kid, Randi—and she’s acting more and more like she’s ready to talk about her trauma.”
I hated that word, trauma—but who was I to say what my child experienced and how it affected her? I only hoped it was something we could fix.
On the drive back to Sarah’s school, I decided to try some conversation. I made an attempt at sounding casual, but my daughter probably couldn’t pick up on my emotions anyway. “I love you, Sarah. I don’t say it often enough, so I wanted to make sure I told you.” When I glanced over at her, she was looking out the passenger side window, so I didn’t even know if she was listening to me. “Rebecca said you miss Justin. Is that right?” As I pulled up to a stop sign, I looked over and saw Sarah nodding slowly. While she didn’t say a word or make eye contact, she turned her head toward me—so I ventured ahead with another question. “Would you like it if he came over sometime next week?” Was this an evil ulterior motive? I didn’t know for certain, but when Sarah nodded again, I merely said, “Okay. We’ll see.”
Having him over, though, would minimize the distance I was trying to give myself. My heart, that open wound, would never heal if I wouldn’t stop gouging it.
But like an addict, I sought him out that night after class. I justified it in my head because I thought I had multiple issues to discuss with him. As I walked to my van, I saw his truck next to it again, but he wasn’t anywhere in sight. So I got in my vehicle and lit a cigarette, turning on the engine so the heater could run and waited.
A few minutes later, Justin was walking across the parking lot, talking with another man, a guy I thought might have been his instructor. After chatting a little longer, the two men waved to each other and Justin approached our vehicles. Snuffing out my cigarette, I shut off the engine and jumped out.
“Hey, Rascal. What’s up? I hope you weren’t waiting on me.”
“I was warming up the van. But, yeah, I was waiting.”
“Warming up? It’s not that cold out here.”
“Yes, it is—and I’m not ready for winter yet.”
With a grin, he tugged at the collar of my jacket. “Well, then, you should wear something a little warmer.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“So what’s goin’ on?”
“Well…I wanted to tell you about a phone call I got yesterday.”
“Yeah?”
I couldn’t even bring myself to say the woman’s name. “Your girlfriend called.”
“Girl? Chelsea?”
“Yeah. She was pretty snotty. She told me I couldn’t talk to you or see you anymore.”
Justin laughed. “You gotta be kidding.”
“I wish I were. She’s freaking psychotic.”
“Damn straight. She doesn’t know me too well if she thinks she can threaten my friend like that.”
“But it got me to thinking,” I said, playing a card that could backfire—but I was going to do it anyway. “I don’t want to ruin your relationships just because I like hanging out with you. It’s selfish of me. I can get out of the picture